1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector and more particularly, to a stacked LAN connector assembly mounted to an apparatus such as a desktop type personal computer, a server and a game machine or the like and mated with a modular plug corresponding thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modular jack receptacle connectors and Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectors are commonly used the computers or network appliance as input/output ports for transmitting data or signals. An example of such a connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,089 issued to Costello et al. on Dec. 19, 2000 which describes a stacked LAN connector. The Costello connector includes a stacked USB component and a modular jack component secured in respective portions of main housing, an outer shield; around the main housing and an inner shield surrounding the stacked USB component. The USB component is stacked beneath the modular jack component. The inner shield includes a front shield having a plurality of grounding legs and a rear shield attached to the front shield.
However, it is difficult to accurately insert or pull out a USB plug if a modular plug has mated with the modular jack component since the USB component is arranged beneath the modular jack component. Moreover, high frequency transmission requires EMI shielding and crosstalk protection between modular jack and USB connectors in order to improve quality of transmission. Furthermore, the structure of the Costello connector is obviously complicated and the cost of the connector is thus relatively high. Furthermore, the inner shield is relatively large for forming the grounding legs in addition when used in stacked modular jack application and the assemble process is complicated. The mounting process and ground connection become more complicated when more ports are integrally made as an assembly.
Hence, an improved electrical connector incorporating electrical connectors of different types and providing good signal transmitting quality is desired to overcome the foregoing shortcomings.